Pulling Away (Warriors 112, Spurs 92)

The San Antonio Spurs have been a model organization across all professional sports for well over two decades now. Lest you overlook just how incredible their run of success has been, I’m reproducing below a graphic that CSN showed during their broadcast:

That is, I think, the very definition of sustained excellence, and the Spurs have numerous championship banners to show for their efforts. Talk to folks inside the Warriors organization, from the front office and coaching staff to the players, and they’ll all tout the Spurs’ success as the standard to which they aspire. The book has yet to be written on the long-term outcomes of this particular era of Warriors basketball. In the moment, though, albeit with a very large caveat, the Warriors appear to have jumped ahead of their role models, as they weathered an initial storm and a 19 point first quarter deficit en route to a comfortable 112-92 victory.

Any macro-level discussion of this game is a bit unfair to San Antonio, as the Spurs were without veteran point guard Tony Parker and their all-world superstar in Kawhi Leonard, with both players recovering from injuries. One could make the argument that Parker is past his prime and a net detriment to the Spurs on account of his rapidly eroding defensive skills. However, Dubs fans know precisely the value of Kawhi and how his absence affects this Spurs team (see: 2017 Western Conference Finals, pre and post Kawhi injury). Without him on the floor, Gregg Popovich loses a two-way stud unlike any other in basketball today, and that greatly changes how we should view the results of Thursday night’s contest. Pop’s teams have always had one super-duper star (Tim Duncan, now Leonard), supporting stars (Manu Ginobili, Parker) and a rotating cast of role players (SJax, Bruce Bowen, Mike Finley, Robert Horry, Steve Kerr, etc.), and without the present edition of the super-duper star, they’ve struggled at the beginning of this season.

That being said, the Spurs are still a tough out, especially in the historic house of horrors that is the AT&T Center, and the first quarter and second quarters saw the Warriors take the Spurs’ best punch and come away a bit wobbly. Behind a slew of LaMarcus Aldridge buckets from the post and beyond the arc, the Spurs jumped out to a 19 point advantage, fueled by some ice cold shooting from Kevin Durant, who started the night 0-8 from the field and had the ball stripped from him on seemingly every possession. In my eyes, the Warriors weren’t particularly sloppy or careless, although there were a number of missed opportunities to clean up on the glass (the Spurs racked up an 11 rebound edge in the first half alone, including 10 offensive boards to the Warriors’ 1). The Warriors also found their defense scattered by the Spurs’ ball movement, especially when they tried to double someone in the post or provide help. This led to the continuation of another theme from Dubs losses this year: it is tough to win when your opponent gets so many more cracks at the basket than you do, and the Spurs outshot the Warriors by 9 (48 to 39) in the first half. But the Warriors, ever resilient, hung around long enough for the Spurs to start making some mistakes of their own, for their defensive rotations to stabilize and work cohesively, and for their stars to shine. After giving up another 11-3 run to the Spurs with a Pat McCaw/Klay Thompson/Kevin Durant/Shaun Livingston/David West lineup, Steve Kerr went small with variants of the Hamptons 5 featuring Jordan Bell and Shaun Livingston. With Steph finding his shooting stroke and Durant finally hitting a shot (a corner 3 assisted by Steph), the Warriors closed the half on a 15-4 run and went into halftime just down 5.

The third quarter saw the Dubs really flex their muscles and assert their will on a thus-far back-and-forth game. Kevin Durant went on a scoring flurry of his own, putting up 15 points in the period on a variety of pull-up jumpers and clever moves to the basket. Draymond Green scored 8 points of his own before riding pine due to foul trouble. Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, content to move the ball and let Durant go to work, tacked on 4 and 3 points of their own respectively, and just like that the Warriors had a 7 point edge. The Spurs continued to get massive production out of LaMarcus Aldridge, but the Spurs needed an outside scoring punch to complement him and the best candidates for that role were wearing suits on the bench or having poor games (Manu shot 2-6 and was -14 on the night with 3 turnovers, Rudy Gay was 3-10 at -16 with 3 turnovers, Patty Mills was 2-7 and -13). At the start of the fourth quarter, Klay Thompson capped off his sneakily-huge night with a 7 point mini-flurry of his own, and Pop got himself tossed before garbage time ensued.

One big takeaway from this game is that Steve Kerr might have found himself the semblance of a rotation, opting to pair Curry and Durant’s minutes as opposed to staggering them. While this leaves the S2Q and S4Q units without a proven “go get me a bucket” scorer, the collective basketball IQ and passing prowess of those lineups should in theory be sufficient to overcome the lack of individual scoring punch. The last two games have seen those bench units either bat neutral, actually cut into a deficit, or extend a lead, so I can see where the coaching staff is coming from. Another takeaway is that it isn’t just the Warriors who are suffering some ill effects from the shortened preseason. You never expect a Pop-coached Spurs team to have careless turnovers or severe defensive breakdowns, but the Spurs coughed up the rock 16 times, and simple back-cuts with the ball in the high post produced easy looks at the basket for the Dubs. At the end of the first quarter, the Dubs had Shaun Livingston and Andre Iguodala set screens in the post while JaVale erased anyone who tried to leak out towards the three point arc, leaving Curry wide open for a three. In this particular instance, while the play design was exquisite, I don’t think I’ve seen the Spurs so slow to react to a fairly slow-developing sequence. The magic of the Spurs is that they’ve historically been able to plug new players into their (ever evolving) system. Just as the Warriors are shaking out the cobwebs, so too are the Spurs.

In their last two victories, the Warriors have started slowly before pulling away late; while this trend may not fly in the postseason, it is encouraging to see this team put together stretches of altogether dominant basketball. The Warriors are now winners of two in a row and face the Nuggets on Saturday night; the Spurs, losers of 4 in a row, will be waiting anxiously for Kawhi Leonard’s return.

viggy

Post navigation

I don’t think you all are thinking clearly on this. I understand the loyalty to our current roster – and I like them all, too (except for Swaggy P, but the season is young).

But the way it should work is that Cook comes in under his two-way contract rules and we see how the team does with him at the helm. If it’s nothing special, fine, it was worth a shot. But if the struggling second team (without Curry and maybe without Durant) suddenly catches fire and increases leads rather than losing them, then there’s a decision to be made. As the season winds down the coaches and front office can decide if they would be a better team for the playoffs with Cook on the roster, in which case they’ll have to get rid of someone – through cut or trade. But playing Cook during the regular season doesn’t commit them one way or the other.

Champs15

Coach Kerr must already be losing sleep over which players to sit every game, I think he will go crazy if he has to add more guy into rotation.

Joe Nava

And I appreciate you taking the time to share your views.

The way I see it is that Green’s comments (in his instagram account) were his way of challenging/trolling McNair. The subtext of Green’s comments appears to be “you (Mr. McNair) have the mentality of a slave owner.”

Cuban then decided to troll Green as if it weren’t clear that Green’s comments were meant to challenge/troll McNair for his reprehensible statement.

I continue to believe that Cuban saying that Green’s instagram comments were as bad as what McNair said shows that Cuban is either stupid or that he was trolling Green (for personal reasons?) or posturing for political reasons.

Thanks for taking the time to read my response.

Phan Boi

I never liked that guy….

Metaldubs

Sorry for the late reply as I’ve been busy with work and life lately. No offense taken and tbh I didn’t realize it becomes an issue. I just dislike the fact that him trying to take out Steph during 2016 finals. He talked a lotta BS against us while he could’ve shown more professionalism since he’s a veteran.

Anyway I will refrain from these sexist remarks from now on and please accept my apology as well.